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http://www.native-languages.org/tattoo.htm
Here is a website speaking of tribal tattoos. Very interesting and informative.
I am gonna forward it to a friend who has a website that is totally devoted to making sure American Indian tradition is upheld.
vance
Thank you Vance.:) That was very elloquent. I am going to look for that book of mine this morning and find that drawing of those Indians with the tats and see if it gives any social, political, or spiritual reasons for them. Love & Light, Lynella.
P.S. Vance, about your back, just a thought here, I have scoliosis really bad. It is a sideways curviture of the spine. You can’t really tell unless I am in a lot of pain of you put your hands on my shoulders and see that one is over an inch shorter than the other one! But, I had a lot of muscle deterioration when I lost a bunch of weight many years ago and am just now working to rebuild some semblance of muscle structure. IT REALLY HELPS A LOT! Get two of those $6.00 5lb. dumbells from Wal-mart and start doing excersises with them. just 15 minutes a day helps BUNCHES. Lots of different easy things like that that will help. We should e-mail about it, cause I’m tellin’ ya’, if it helps me, it could work for you too!;)
HI Vance, Sorry I havn’t answered any of your posts. My Dad died last week and I have been running around taking care of the arrangements, clearing his apartment etc.
He is the one I was doing the NA research for and now he is gone. He so longed for me to find out and document all the family information for him before he died. But I wasn’t able to do it. Well, at least, he is on the other side and has all the answers now.
Like you, I am very suspicious of flippant information. I don’t know much about my NA ancestors because my Grandmother would not tell us about being NA. She was ashamed of it. Our family Oral history has her being born on a reservation but we have documentation that our ancestors left the tribe and took a land grant. So we aren’t sure about that oral history. The only thing we can think of is that if she was born on the res it must have been when my GGrandmother was visiting some relatives or something. I don’t know. I haven’t looked at my information in a long time and I won’t have time to look for a while until we get my father’s passing taken care of. We can’t find a birth certificate for my Grandmother since she was born in 1900 and they didn’t have to have certificates then. We have found her on census etc, but no birth certificate yet. I am going to send for her divorce papers to see if there is any information in them.
Anytime anyone tells me something about my family or the NA stuff I don’t take it as gospel until I can get the documentation.
So, anyway, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to answer you. I am reeling from my father’s passing. And as I was contacting aunts and uncles to tell them about Daddy I found out that my fav cousin on my mother’s side had died reciently and that my father’s brother died last August and they didn’t call to tell us. So in effect, I am grieving three deaths at the same time. Even though the other two died a few months ago, it is new news to us and we are saddened by it.
So, please give me some slack time to get things done and to grieve and then I’ll be more active.
I do appreciate your input and your kindness and your knowledge.
Have a wonderful day. Barb
Barb,
It is very good to hear from you. I am so very sorry for your loss. I know exactly what you’re going through, so don’t ever feel rushed. These things do take time for healing the heart and mind. God Bless you and my prayers are with you. Love & Light, Always, Lynella.
Tom & Barb,
This isn’t the book I was talking about, I’m still looking for the other one. This is “The Way of The Warrior”, by Time-Life Books, 1993, Alexandria, Virginia.
Pg. 29, A black and white photo of three young guys, one has white tattoos on his face, one has dark ones on his face. Next to the photo it says, “Three Quechan Warriors pose for a photgraph in the studio of E. A. Bonine around 1880. A US Army officer who was posted on thewestern frontier in the mid-1800’s commented that the Quechan “decorate themselves most splendedly for war. Their bodies are tatooed variously, according to their ideas of beauty or terrific effect.”
On pg. 94, A black & White photo of a shirtless fellow holding a pipe, next to it, it says, “An Osage Indian named Star That Travels proudly displays his network of tatoos that includes the rays of the sun and a ceremonial knife. The warriors of a number of tribes used tatooing in addition to body paint as marks of distinction.” I gotta go, but I’ll be back in about 2 hours to finish this!
I’m back! The same book, pg. 95, it has a color photo of the implements used in the Osage tatooing. It says, “The Osage tatooing implements below include a clam shell to hold dies and a half dozen sharp metal needles, used for pricking the skin, that are decorated with rushes, feathers and tiny brass bells. The tools were stored in a rolled up woven mat that was itself a sacred object, made by women who fasted while they did the weaving. It was a matter of honor among warriors not to show pain durring the tatooing process.”
So, it is all very interesting! I’ll continue looking through my books for that other one. Love & Light, Lynella.
This still is not the one I was thinking of, but here’s some more.
Reader’s Digest, “America’s Fascinating Indian Heritage” 1978, Pleasantville, New York.
On pg. 96, there’s two colorful drawings and on the top of each one it says “of Florida.” “Two Timuacas, their bodies elaborately tatooed and dressed in characteristic garbs, were drawn by 16th century Englishman John White. The woman’s dress is made of Spanish moss; durring the chill of winter she probably donned a cloak of feathers or skins for additional warmth. She holds symbols of her duties- an ear of corn in one hand and a pottery bowl, probably containing cornmeal, in the other. The women did most of the gardening, prepared the food and molded clay into vessels. Her body is covered from head to ankles with tatoos, the designs representing her status in the tribe and, by implication, the position of her husband. The warrior is also tatooed to denote his ranking. Tatooing was accomplished by pricking the skin with needles dipped in cinnabar or lampblack. (A warrior who decorated his body with a design to which he was not entitled by rank or accomplishment was forced to remove it- a very painfull process.) 🙂 That’s that for that one, except these tatooes are very intricate designs, almost Celtic looking framed in bands, all over them.
Same book, pg. 367, the Eskimos of Northern Alaska, the women had both facial and body tatoos. “For girls of Northern Alaska, facial tatoos were a sign of eligability for marriage and the girls were eager to have them applied as early as possible despite warnings from their Elders that they might thereafter be persued by men they did not like. The tatoos which were made by an older woman, usually a relative, consisted of a series of parallel lines that ran from the center of the lower lip to the top of the chin.”
In “Everyday Life of The North American Indian, by Jon Manchip White, 1993, Indian Head Books, New York. Pg. 88, It says, “The southerly tribes tatooed the whole of their bodies with bizarre stripes or whorls in variegated colours, or painted themselves with white, red and brown ochres and pigments, and some of the central and Eastern tribes also practiced the art of tatooing.”
😉 So, That’s what I’ve found so far! Love ya’, Lynella.
Here is the reply I got from someone who as far as I am concerned, is an expert on keeping the integrity of Indian traditions pure. Here is what he wrote about tattooing
— quote —
Vance, I mentioned in another post about the people I knew from Sault St Marie who got traditional tattoos with special meaning for their people. Thankfully I haven’t seen any sign of Nuagers appropriating that yet.
One of my best friends is a tattoo artist. He did all of mine. None of my five tattoos is traditional work, simply because as far as I know it never was an Apache practice. I gave him that same link since he had questions. People are always coming to him wanting “a cool Native tat” or something “tribal.” He can’t stand “tribal” tattoos, which he tells me were first made popular by a white guy from the Netherlands, who did them for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Most of these designs are just meaningless swirls, they don’t have the significance that Maoris and Hawaiians give them.
I know that some people such as the Caddo did do facial tats, simple geometric designs of dots and stripes. Hopefully no Nuagers or others will try to imitate that.
There was a guy who was on Ripley;’s Believe It or Not we discussed a few years ago. A really sad and bizarre case, he claimed he had Lakota in him and was the leader of his own “band.” The guy claimed his “power animal” was the tiger and he was using plastic and dental surgery and tattooing to make himself look like one. He had his ears altered, fangs put in his mouth and some kind of artificial talons on his fingertips, and the coloring of a tiger put on his face.
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end of direct quote
. I think he’s gona respond more later when he gets more info, but I am not sure.
Thank you Barb for bringing up this topic. I am gettin an education.
I am sorry to hear about your father. When my father passed away I was stunned and empty for a good long while — couldn’t believe it. My sympathies go out to you and your family.
take care,
vance
Vance,
Thank you, this is really good! I hope we do hear more from your friend. That idiot with the tiger junk, well, I guess that speaks for itself!;) Love & Light, Lynella.
Originally posted by lynellarainhawk
a shirtless fellow holding a pipe, next to it, it says, “An Osage Indian named Star That Travels proudly displays his network of tatoos that includes the rays of the sun and a ceremonial knife.
Very interesting to find you all discussing tribal tatooing. I am the great, great grandson of Star That Travels (aka Chief Bacon Rind). My son is the last of the “BaconRind” name at this point and I’m hoping to give him a little brother soon. I wanted to stop in and say Hello. Please feel free to contact me: cbaconrind at hotmail dot com if you wish. Thanks! –Chad BaconRind
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